Teaism wrote:Spent some time to evaluate one of my fave 2005 wild spring DXS. The tea is mellowing and the thick body is showing up and dominating the brew. Immense sweetness and full bodied. I stopped buying DXS after 2007 as the quality depreciate a lot since then. Those earlier wild spring prior that is full of gusto.

Cheers!

瑞荣号？

I love that cake too, the scent of the leaves alone is intoxicating. I bought it right after trying some, really appreciate the complex fragrance and character. It is not something that most people would go for typically but it is irresistible to me.

Yes if you are used to wild spring tea, it is very hard to get used to the rest. And when you taste an aged wild spring tea, it is even harder.
But it is still a matter of taste, we could be wrong

:O...rare? oh no.. i'm guzzling it like mad and have gone through probably half a cake already

Teaism wrote:

wert wrote:

Teaism wrote:

wert wrote:

Teaism wrote:Spent some time to evaluate one of my fave 2005 wild spring DXS. The tea is mellowing and the thick body is showing up and dominating the brew. Immense sweetness and full bodied. I stopped buying DXS after 2007 as the quality depreciate a lot since then. Those earlier wild spring prior that is full of gusto.

Cheers!

瑞荣号？

I love that cake too, the scent of the leaves alone is intoxicating. I bought it right after trying some, really appreciate the complex fragrance and character. It is not something that most people would go for typically but it is irresistible to me.

Yes if you are used to wild spring tea, it is very hard to get used to the rest. And when you taste an aged wild spring tea, it is even harder.
But it is still a matter of taste, we could be wrong

Please excuse the length. I just didn't know how to summarize. This is a 2012 Yiwu, 80-year-old bushes I was told. I'm still a sheng newbie but I think I've found a good one. I bought it in Penang. I've done five grams and found it lacking. I've done ten and had epic sessions but a bit of a tea hangover the next day. Today I tried 7 1/2grams and it's just right for one person for an all day session.
1) Drank the rinse. Just couldn’t pour it out. Weak. Wet leaf aroma is a delicious smokiness. 2) My palette is pleasantly throbbing. Minutes later it’s still slightly buzzing. Tongue is a bit dried. Having visions of a jungle with very strong wild veggies, an acquired taste but good. 3) 25s Lots of smoke in the aroma but not in the taste at all. Bitter, better back off, but there is almost a sweetness but not quite. Very pronounced dry coating of tongue and a drink of water dramatically brings out the not unpleasant coarseness of the tongue. 4) Bitter, but good head feel now. Second cup – now I’m getting the pin point sensations on the tongue. 3rd cup – a different, stronger bitterness, hint of ash. 20 minutes later I really need water and it seldom tastes so good, activating or washing back a flavor from the tongue to the throat. 5,6) a little harsher, but give me more, please. 7) 20 s OK, weaker but still the spicy pricks on the tongue, the bitterness is way more manageable now. I think I’ve been oversteeping it. Yes. Now I can hold it in the mouth and enjoy a creaminess and a gentle, friendly bitterness. Yum. And at the very bottom of the cha hai, just the right amount of smoke. I’m not a big fan of smoke but this is very nice. Minutes later I notice the tongue coating again. 8 ) 20s No taste, but still some aftertaste. 9) 40s weak 10) 80s Now the taste of earlier infusions is back, but so is a less pleasant bitterness than before. It’s been fun. Wait. The 2nd cup is better. Getting the tongue coating now. 10) 90s Taste isn’t what it was but is still worth drinking. The qi is still strong with this one. 11) 120s Weak but I don’t want to stop. This taste is addictive. First cup a momentary creaminess and even sweetness, the second slightly metallic but oddly, not in a bad way. My tongue is buzzing. Now a bad aftertaste comes and I need a drink but that’s natural because it’s very hot today. 12) 130s 13) 160s Still giving something. 14) 180s Still tolerable, but not good, to drink, but it’s still stimulating me mentally and physically. Think I’ll stop. I'm glad I bought a tong.

Enjoying more of the 2008 Bamboo Yiwu puerh from Norbu. One minor feature of this lovely tea is the handy way that the cylinders of dry leaves separate, and the ease of breaking off a piece of just the right size for the desired infusions--compared to some of my other 'old reliables', the rock-hard Menghai golden needle & white lotus, or similar hard dense pieces, it's a piece of cake! And it's a nice tea to drink too. What more could I ask of a puerh?

Puerlife wrote:Please excuse the length. I just didn't know how to summarize. This is a 2012 Yiwu, 80-year-old bushes I was told. I'm still a sheng newbie but I think I've found a good one. I bought it in Penang. I've done five grams and found it lacking. I've done ten and had epic sessions but a bit of a tea hangover the next day. Today I tried 7 1/2grams and it's just right for one person for an all day session.
1) Drank the rinse. Just couldn’t pour it out. Weak. Wet leaf aroma is a delicious smokiness. 2) My palette is pleasantly throbbing. Minutes later it’s still slightly buzzing. Tongue is a bit dried. Having visions of a jungle with very strong wild veggies, an acquired taste but good. 3) 25s Lots of smoke in the aroma but not in the taste at all. Bitter, better back off, but there is almost a sweetness but not quite. Very pronounced dry coating of tongue and a drink of water dramatically brings out the not unpleasant coarseness of the tongue. 4) Bitter, but good head feel now. Second cup – now I’m getting the pin point sensations on the tongue. 3rd cup – a different, stronger bitterness, hint of ash. 20 minutes later I really need water and it seldom tastes so good, activating or washing back a flavor from the tongue to the throat. 5,6) a little harsher, but give me more, please. 7) 20 s OK, weaker but still the spicy pricks on the tongue, the bitterness is way more manageable now. I think I’ve been oversteeping it. Yes. Now I can hold it in the mouth and enjoy a creaminess and a gentle, friendly bitterness. Yum. And at the very bottom of the cha hai, just the right amount of smoke. I’m not a big fan of smoke but this is very nice. Minutes later I notice the tongue coating again. 8 ) 20s No taste, but still some aftertaste. 9) 40s weak 10) 80s Now the taste of earlier infusions is back, but so is a less pleasant bitterness than before. It’s been fun. Wait. The 2nd cup is better. Getting the tongue coating now. 10) 90s Taste isn’t what it was but is still worth drinking. The qi is still strong with this one. 11) 120s Weak but I don’t want to stop. This taste is addictive. First cup a momentary creaminess and even sweetness, the second slightly metallic but oddly, not in a bad way. My tongue is buzzing. Now a bad aftertaste comes and I need a drink but that’s natural because it’s very hot today. 12) 130s 13) 160s Still giving something. 14) 180s Still tolerable, but not good, to drink, but it’s still stimulating me mentally and physically. Think I’ll stop. I'm glad I bought a tong.

The drying and prickly feeling on the tongue could just be the tea, but it sounds exactly like what I feel when I drink tea produced with pesticides or chemicals. If you want to be sure you can buy the tasting for chemicals set from EOT so you know what the chemical feeling is and can determine if that is what you experienced.

I probably should take the EoT 'class' but just don't feel like it. Anyway, I think tannins are another likely explanation, especially since they were pleasant sensations and because they came and went. As for the pinpricks (which really describes the size of the spots, not any discomfort or taste) I read on a wine forum that strong bitterness or sourness can be the cause, so I read my notes again and, sure enough, 100% correlation.
It's an unpredictable sheng, every cup of every infusion seemingly different, active on the tongue, tasty and with tastes and aromas that last long after I drink it. I'm sure I can get better at brewing it, and other teas, but I also believe it's just not ready to be tamed.

So I'm still sampling sheng puer, with orders from three new vendors on the way. This is the last one of the samples I've already received that I had yet to taste, and I've enjoyed it throughout the day.

It's definitely the best of the bunch from the two orders I have gone through. That doesn't say too much, because overall it has so far been a rather underwhelming experience (although educational) of mostly sub-par stuff. But there was a couple of the ones from Chawang I would consider buing, with this one at the top.

It's pleasant and well rounded, but at the same time not bland or anonymous at all. I'm picking up a slight hint of honey which has been there throughout the steepings (somewhere around 15 so far, although I'll have to stop quite soon, not that the tea couldn't handle a few more). Mellow feeling in the mouth and throat, no unpleasantness. I usually like a bit of bitterness, but don't mind the more or less complete absence of it here. Some energy, but not very strong qi (which I very much hope to experience some day, I guess one should consult the more pricy stuff for that?), although I have been surprisingly awake throughout the day relying only on this and a bit of sencha earlier on (even though I slept quite bad last night, and have been working on my thesis all day). Hmm..

All in all it just "tastes great" and feels the same, and although I'll definitely wait until I've gone through all the incoming samples before I make any orders, I can definitely see myself picking up a cake of this in the future. Let's hope it's still around when I get there.

Enjoying a nice 2011 Manzhuang Laozhai. Nice, thick and syrupy, typical of Manzhuang character. Last so many brews (> 20) until I am tired of brewing. Sometime I just got lazy, especially on a quiet and sleepy Sunday afternoon.

Yiwu Peacock Blend 2013 Spring Tea Urchin
Morning 7 grams Drank three infusions counting the rinse which I greedily downed like a peasant. Not really liking it. The autumn-like flavor is only rescued by a bitterness which I’m not sure I like. Then I read Eugene’s description - brown sugar fragrance, a honey sweet liquor that coats the whole mouth, and some nice bitterness to balance – and yeah, that’s what that aroma is! And I must admit I want more, so it’s not that bad. Suddenly, my whole perspective shifts. This is not so bad! Educational, actually, in that I wouldn’t have described this as sweet at all, but now that I’ve read it I understand. It’s different, a bitter sweetness.
Gao Shan Zhai Spring 2012 Tea Urchin (Unfortunately this one is sold out and I only have this sample)
six grams Very loosely compacted. After one gentle insertion of the pick I used my fingers to pull off what I wanted. 1) Drank the rinse. Is this a bad habit even for young sheng from a trusted source such as TU? 2) 10s Sweetness, like after you’ve swallowed sugar and waited a minute. This is remarkably similar in that aspect to this mornings Peacock, but there the similarity ends. The kuwei is better, much more accessible for this newbie, and after the second infusion the qi has relaxed my throat and gone down and started working on my bronchia which is nice because I have asthma. I’ve read about this going down the throat thing but this is the first time I’ve had it. At the same time a pleasantly heavy headfeel has descended and I’m smiling now. The huigan is still there minutes later, now bitter, now sweet. The tongue is gently coated and watering. The returning sweetness is almost instantaneous. Mm, this needs to be swished around before swallowing. 5) 60s Past it’s peak already, but still good qi. Next time I'll try ten grams.

Jing Mai 2012 from Tea Urchin 9 grams. rinse, 1) 20s too weak 2) 30s bulls eye! None of the upfront sweetness of yesterday’s Yiwus. Immediate kuwei, then very slowly the huigan comes up the throat. Just caught a whiff of delicious smoke mixed with the dry leaf aroma. 3) 30s The kuwei is now served up in a creamy, delicious broth. Swishing it around on my tongue I’m reminded of my 901 7542. Oooh, 5-10 minutes later I’m getting a deliciously rich returning sweetness. This tea rewards patience between infusions. I’m feeling strong qi despite heavy pu intake recently, down in my chest almost jittery, in the head WIDE awake and smiling, wanna give someone a hug but alas, I'm drinking alone. (The almost jittery feeling is because during the session I took a big dose of lin jiu/reishi tincture. What a boost) 20 minutes later still getting sweet creaminess in the mouth. This huigan is without a doubt superior to yesterdays, which only made me want to take a drink of water. 4) 30s No sweetness this time, and the bitter is less wonderful, and my palate tastes slightly metallic. 5)30s 98C this time, with better results, more like 2 and 3 but less so. Qi is good. I’m getting an uninhibited but in control feeling. 6) 40s 98C Nice feeling in throat, good bitterness but less of it. Try longer infusion. Good qi. I thought I’d get more than six infusions out of nine grams but the energy from the session lasted long after.